Van Buren Drive-In

I don't own a time machine, but I found one nearby that was easy to use and cheap.

The Van Buren Drive-In movie theater in Riverside reminded my father of his teenage years, while I had a chance to see what it was like to watch a movie before the multiplex or digital streaming.

The Van Buren opened in 1964 with just one screen. It now has three screens, each showing two movies every night. For $7 per person, moviegoers can park their car for the night, set up chairs and blankets and grab some theater snacks for a movie at 8:30 p.m. Here's another blast from the past: your entry fee gets you a second movie at 10:30 p.m.

My family and I went to the Van Buren on a Monday night in August. Right off the 91 freeway, it was easy to find and the line to get in was minimal. Though the theater recommends you get there an hour before your film, we arrived with 30 minutes to spare and found a spot with ease.

After being directed to our screen, we backed the car into a parking spot, put the seats down in the back, got out the folding chairs and set up our boom box. The Van Buren uses a radio station to project the audio. To avoid ending the night with a dead car battery, we borrowed a family friend's boom box with radio capability to use for the night.

Promptly at 8:30, “Turbo” began. With numerous other cars projecting their radios in the parking lot, it sounded like a modern surround sound system. We were sitting outside on a cool, starry night, seeing planes fly overhead to the local airport and trains roar by on the nearby track.

Not that I need to be convinced, but it was easy to understand the romanticism of drive-ins. I could see why a teenager with a new set of wheels in the 1940s and '50s would have brought a girl to the drive-in to impress her for a romantic night out. Maybe they would even see a shooting star.

Drive-ins started in the 1930s when car culture and movie culture began to boom in a Depression-ridden county. The first drive-in theater opened near Camden, N.J., in the summer of 1933, and was originally known as a park-in theater. Entrepreneur and auto parts salesman Richard Hollingshead believed customers would come to watch movies in the comfort and privacy of their cars.

The patent he obtained was overturned in 1949, and soon after drive-ins took over the movie-watching industry in the United States, with the boom peaking at 4,000 theaters in 1958.

Hollingshead's intentions for the drive-in theater experience still can be seen at the Van Buren today.

“You are in the privacy of your own car,” said Fred Williams, owner of the Van Buren since 1969. “You can talk if you want, you can smoke a cigarette or bring your food from outside. We prefer you buy it here, but we don't care if you bring it in. You don't have to put up with other people talking or going in and out of your row or cellphones going off. People can control light, heat and so forth.”

My dad could lean over to tell me it was Ryan Reynolds who did the voice of Turbo. My sister could ask my mom for more popcorn. And I could comfortably sit in the back of the car with a blanket and my feet up, with no one else around.

Williams started working for Deanza Development, the company that owns the Van Buren, in 1961 as a college job.

“I just got into it part time in college and it just kind of stuck,” he said.

Despite the prevalence of indoor theaters, the Van Buren is doing well and has hit capacity almost every weekend night so far this summer.

The Van Buren Drive-In theatre in Riverside has three screens, each showing two different movies every night of the week. ROSE PALMISANO, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
When the Van Buren Drive-In opened in 1964, it had only one screen. Today the drive-in featres three movie screens each showing two movies every night of the week. ROSE PALMISANO, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Angelina Chacon feels right at home watching the movie, "Smurfs," during a recent outing with her grandmother. ROSE PALMISANO, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
The Van Buren Drive-In movie theatre in Riverside is one of few left in the country. When it opened in 1964, it only had one screen. Today the theatre feautres three movie screens each showing two movies every night of the week. ROSE PALMISANO, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Justin Pinto brings his girlfriend, Taylor Lassiter, to the Van Buren Drive-In theatre, often for romantic evenings, they said. ROSE PALMISANO, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Josh Roberts, left, and his sister, Jaime, like the outdoor atmosphere of the Drive-In and decided to bring Josh's daughters, Kyla, left, and Rylee to the Van Buren Drive-In Theatre in Riverside recently. ROSE PALMISANO, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Heather Sievers, left, and her friend, Gayle Abramo, right, left their husbands home in Newport Beach and drove their kids, Nina Abramo, bottom, and Audrey Stroth, to the Van Buren Drive-In movie theatre in Riverside recently. ROSE PALMISANO, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
The Van Buren Drive-In theatre in Riverside offers a family oriented atmosphere, where Douglas and Victoria Fisher feel at home with their son, Douglas. The theatre has three screens each showing two movies every night of the week. ROSE PALMISANO, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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